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Abstract
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What this paper adds
• A definition of social love that addresses current professional concern over use of the concept.
• Discussion of the potential of social love to add value to public health systems, other public systems, and the populations they serve.
• A proposal of a way forward to explore the operationalisation and application of social love to existing public health decision making, and to collectively re-imagine the ways that we can incorporate ‘social love’ into everyday practice.
Implications for policy and practice
• A public health system dominated by a biomedical model of care neglects ‘social love’, to the potential detriment of those providing and using public health services.
• Social love has the potential to add value to public health systems, other public systems, and the populations they serve, by acting as a lens through which public health policy making and decision making occurs, with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of our populations.
Introduction
Relationships of all types are central to our lives and to our mental and physical health.1 Love is an important concept in modern society, yet the popular use of the term ‘love’ does not capture the full breadth of its meaning. When one hears the word love, the mind naturally goes to romantic relationships. This presents a challenge, as the single term is used to convey several complex meanings: familial love, friendship love, parental love, spiritual love, strong individual and/or collective caring and nurturing actions towards others, and strong feelings towards objects and pastimes. The catch-all nature of the term ‘love’ is one of the primary reasons its use is often avoided by scientific, evidence-based professions, who develop their own ways of referring to the concept.2–6 These include using related but distinct concepts like belonging, kindness, connection, and attachment, instead of using the term love. By taking care to avoid confusion with romantic love, we, as public health professionals, are missing an opportunity to explore the impact of a concept that could be important in our practice, and in the impact that we can make in society. In this article, we explore how the concept of love may align with, enhance, and improve public health decision making and service delivery.
Love as a Concept in Public Health and Social Care
The concept of love in health and social care is not new, and its importance in improving people’s lives is well recognised.2–9 Bell hooks10 suggested that living by a ‘love ethic’ could bring about much needed societal change, helping to overcome dominant systems of inequality, and this theory has received attention in a social care context. hooks believed that embracing a love ethic meant utilising all dimensions of love in our daily lives (care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge) and taking actions that are for the collective good. hooks was not the first to describe love as action for the good of others, and there are multiple other proposed terms and slightly differing definitions of the same, including agape (the Ancient Greek term for love for everyone), compassionate love11, the art of loving2 altruistic love, tender loving care9, caritas7, unselfish love7, and a love of humanity6. hooks’ definition is of focus here for two reasons. First, hooks suggested that the ‘love ethic’ is applicable at societal, whole population level, whereas other definitions referred to here are mainly discussed in the literature in terms of individuals; and second, because it includes loving actions for the good of the self, protecting against exploitation and abuse of power8, whereas many of the other definitions include an element of self-sacrifice.
Language: en |